The provision of safe and clean water is important in municipal, industrial, and recreational applications. Conventional water treatments employ physical, chemical, and biological processes either alone or in combination to produce a product water of acceptable quality.
In applications where water is intended for human contact or consumption, the water must be treated so that it is aesthetically pleasing in terms of taste, color, turbidity, odor, and pH, environmentally safe, and effectively free of pathogens and chemicals responsible for both acute and chronic illness. Conventional methods use chemicals as oxidizers, biocides, algicides, and pH buffers for the treatment of water and waste water. Typically, the chemicals are added to the water separately as part of an overall water maintenance or purification program. The water is monitored on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis, and when a particular treatment parameter is not acceptable or in compliance with regulatory levels, the appropriate amount of the necessary chemical is added. Often, treatment of one water quality parameter causes another water quality parameter to change. Conventional treatment, therefore, employs a continuous balancing process of monitoring water quality parameters and dosing with various chemicals to create and to maintain the appropriate water quality.
Combinations of two or more chemicals attempt to improve the ease and reliability of chemical treatments for clarifying or disinfecting water. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,501,802 to Thorpe et al. discloses a composition containing a polyhexamethylene biguanide sanitizer, persulfate salt oxidizers, and chelating agents. The composition is used to achieve water clarity. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,514,287 and 5,478,482, both to Jones et al., disclose a composition and a method for controlling microbial growth in recirculating water systems. The composition includes a soluble boron contributor, a halogen/boron sanitizer/algicide, and an oxidizing clarifier having a chlorine compound, a non-halogen oxidizer, and a boron source. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,979 to Hamilton discloses an algicide composition for treating swimming pools and spas including and alkali metal, alkaline earth metal or ammonium bromide and an oxidizer. The composition is metered in over time to maintain a desired bromine concentration. These chemical combinations are not complete water quality treatments. Further, the addition of these chemicals causes other water quality parameters to change, such as pH, requiring additional chemical treatment to compensate for the addition of these chemicals.
In other applications, for example swimming pools and spas, chemical combinations attempt to provide a complete water quality treatment. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,700,877 to Cox discloses a complete treatment for the purification of water in non-porous swimming pools, obviating the need for the addition of any other compounds to the water. The complete treatment chemical composition of Cox includes a peroxide compound, an ammonium-based biocidal compound, an acidic compound, a basic compound, a calcium-releasing basic compound, and EDTA. The composition is added to the water when the pH of that water is outside the human comfort zone of 7.2 to 7.6 in order to bring the pH within the zone range. Therefore, water clarification is combined with pH adjustment.
The need exists for a composition that acts as a biocide, oxidizer, clarifier, and algicide and does not interfere with the overall maintenance of the water. Since water conditions vary from application to application, the composition of the present invention is formulated to provide purification and clarification without adversely affecting concurrent treatment. Benefits include ease of operation for a consumer in pool or spa applications, decreased costs to industry in terms of chemicals and training and time in an industrial process or waste application, and decreased costs to municipal water supplies with limited budgets, space, and equipment. The present composition and treatment method is useful in a variety of applications including home water treatment, community water treatment, industrial water treatment (both waste water and process water), agriculture, water reuse, groundwater injection, and recreational water applications.